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The Toronto Sun DATE: 2005.09.26 EDITION: Final SECTION: Editorial/Opinion PAGE: 20 WORD COUNT: 215 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EDITORIAL EXCERPTS FROM OTTAWA SUN TODAY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REGISTRY IS A GIANT FAILURE We'd like to believe that the federal government's gun control program has made a difference in battling violent crime in Canada since it was implemented a decade ago. The trouble is, despite the fact the government has spent more than $1 billion on the registry to date, we're not seeing any appreciable decline in gun crime. In fact, recently released figures from Statistics Canada show that in 2003 there were 161 homicides involving guns nationwide -- down just four from the 165 recorded in 1999. And the number of homicides involving handguns went up from 89 in 1999 to 109 in 2003. The gun registry targets the wrong people and the wrong firearms. Drug dealers, bank robbers and other violent criminals seldom choose hunting rifles as their weapons of choice. They buy their guns on the street, from other criminals who have stolen them or spirited them across our porous border with the U.S. That's why the gun registry has been such a spectacular failure. Costs have ballooned to more than $1 billion, including a staggering $200 million-plus in 2000-01 alone. Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan told the Sun's Maria McClintock that dealing with the cross-border trade of illegal guns has now become a major priority for her government. Too bad she's not showing the same zeal for toughening up penalties against violent crime.
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